Boulder International Fringe Festival on the Fringe Continuum, August 15-26

Presenting for your inspiration, celebration, and entertainment, Boulder’s 12-day International Fringe Festivalof 2012. August 15 ignites the festival with a snapshot presentation of upcoming acts (tickets, registration, and information available at this link), followed by an after party in the all new Beer Garden of Folsom Street Coffee House. The festival which runs until August 26th includes some 18 venues and more than 350 events. As fringe festivals have done since 1947, coffee-house debates, diverse performances and instruction from local, national and international artists continue the fringing tradition in the streets of Boulder.

Participating arts groups consider their art “communicative” and hope to generate creative thinking for future innovation and fuel a spirit of social change.With names like, Bao Bao On the Fringe, and YouTime as titles of workshops, there are still plenty of opportunities to sign up.

African dancer Adjei Abankwah and his fellow percussionists promise that anyone can experience the ecstasy of body rhythm and the joys of expressive movement (open for all levels and all ages).

If you don’t like dance but still want to express your own story creatively, Kelsie Huff’s YouTime gives a crash course in stand-up comedy. In a party environment you can make your own life story the butt of a joke. If you like to talk about yourself, this is the perfect workshop for you.

On a grander note, crowds who participate in Jii Armah Sowah’s 1000 Voices Project join their collective voices in a project that seeks to awaken “understanding, compassion and respect” through a collective vocalization. Singing is merely the tool, Sowah says, “and if you can speak, you can sing.”

As in the past, the goals of these workshops is to inspire fearlessness and participation, especially among strangers and fellow artists. If further inspiration is needed, perhaps a couple of spectator shows will get you moving.

Among the dance and theater companies scheduled throughout the festival, Cielocompany will sweep new vertical stages with aerial dance and acrobatics in their show, Flying Shoes. Director Heather Baer utilizes gravity and architecture so the suspended dancers move in a new dimension, such as a tree, a building, or a slab of wood.

For young adults, Billy Bell and his four accompanying dancers are the new spectacle in You’ll Never Be Alone. Their modern dance, grace and theatrics tell a story of the first talking picture and ask whether we have gone too far toward self-destruction.

Theatrical shows for the interactive audience include the American Generation’s Project, seniors’ stories taken to the stage by Boulder Ensemble Theater and performed inside the History Museum. Trident Booksellers and Cafe meanwhile will host the humorous Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Anthropological Inquisitorial Probe. Described as a theater/social science experiment, Cecily and Gwendolyn invite the 21st century audience for spur of the moment political interactions focused on the state of the nation.

For you music lovers, the popular webzine, High Fiction, is hosting its first ever battle of the bands at Boulder’s Broker Inn. Six bands will compete against one another in an all out jamming session. The audience determines the survivor.

In addition to workshops and performances, the festival holds many gatherings in local businesses and cafes. Hosted at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, for example, is Boulder’s Hill Flea Market. Half market and half workshop, here various vendors and artisans promote

And in tradition of Fringe, every evening the audience, performers, and crew can enjoy informal shows at Big Time Daily Nights at Folsom Street Coffee House.The events will wrap up with Folsom’s Fringe Encore on August 26th.